Top of the big era

For Sony, the peripheral comes at the perfect time.

Because in February this year, Sony announced a major operating system reform project, which will fundamentally reorganize the company's two core businesses and integrate the "Network Products and Services Group" and the "Consumer Products Group".

It is hoped that Sony can improve profitability and competitiveness in the global economic crisis.

After more than four months of business adjustments and business line reorganization, these two business groups have been strategically formed. Sony is also accelerating the development of innovative network products and services under the leadership of Howard Stringer.

The emergence of Ziweixing is exactly in line with the direction of Sony Group's strategic adjustment.

Definitely hit it off!

Compared with such major group-level matters, the copyright of "Spider-Man" is not that important.

However, Howard Stringer did not agree directly.

Zhou Buqi is not in a hurry. His work for this trip has been completed. The stakes are put aside and he believes that the other party will make the choice that best suits his own interests. Regarding cooperation, more details will be handled by the mixed teams of many companies in Ziwei Galaxy.

The next day, he was ready to leave.

But before leaving, he went to the branch headquarters. Tang Binchen said that there was a big case worth 50 million US dollars, and he hoped that he could go over and evaluate it.

After going there, I discovered it was a recipe website called Cookpad.

"menu?"

"Yes, a website specializing in cooking."

“Isn’t this too niche?”

Zhou Buqi was surprised and felt that this business direction was a bit ridiculous. It’s not that you can’t build a recipe website. There is indeed such a demand in the market, but why do you need to spend 50 million US dollars?

Then Tang Binchen said even more exaggeratedly, "This website is planning to go public. With a strategic investment of US$50 million, you can get 10% of the shares."

"10%?" Zhou Buqi opened his eyes in disbelief, "A recipe website worth 500 million US dollars?"

Tang Binchen said: "This is just the most conservative estimate. According to the market assessment given by investment banks, the market value of this company after listing may exceed US$1 billion. It was supposed to be listed this month, because Ziweixing participated, and they set the listing time It’s been pushed to September.”

Zhou Buqi felt that his cognition had been challenged.

This is only 2009, how can a mere recipe website be so valuable? Ziweixing's cloud computing business is so big that the market can't even give it a valuation of US$1 billion!

Tang Binchen is now very confident and has a grasp on the Japanese market. He said with a smile: "I think the opportunity is very good. What the recipe website needs most is traffic and users. We have YikYak, which can launch a comprehensive cooperation with the recipe website. Cooperation. If you invest US$50 million now, you may be able to earn a 100% return after Cookpad is launched in a few months.”

"etc!"

Zhou Buqi stopped him.

On the surface, if you make a strategic investment in Cookpad now, you can buy 10% of the shares for US$50 million. As long as the other party goes public, you can easily earn tens of millions of dollars in a few months, which is a very cost-effective deal.

But here’s the problem, this is a strategic investment!

Strategic investment is not a financial investment, and it is difficult to exit. Even if we can withdraw, it will take many years.

After many years, the daylilies are cold!

Zhou Buqi frowned and criticized: "You have the wrong idea. When I was negotiating with Sony, I took advantage of Howard Stringer's weakness as a manager to negotiate short-term cooperation with him. What's going on with you? You are the boss of Ziweixing, not a professional manager! Why do you pay attention to this kind of short-term performance? In order to use the performance to offset the year-end bonus? "

Tang Binchen didn't expect a big hat to fall down, and was stunned, "How is it possible? I have never thought about this!"

Zhou Buqi said: "Ziweixing is not an investment company. It wants to make long-term strategic direction and business design. What's the point of cooperating with Recipe Network? Just to wait for the other party to go public, and make tens of millions of dollars in profits on the books? What if we can cash out? Come out, I definitely support it!”

"You don't support Recipe Network?"

"This direction is too niche and cannot support such a large market value."

"Ahem." Tang Binchen felt that he should educate the big boss, "The social environment in Japan is different from that in China. The recipes... this is not actually a niche market."

"Um?"

"In domestic middle-class families, both husband and wife work together, and there are very few housewives. But Japan is different. 80% of families are housewives. Men work outside, and women take care of the family and are responsible for the children's education, transportation, and food. and life. 90% of cookpad users are women and housewives.”

"Well, logically it is true."

Zhou Buqi nodded, his face looking much better.

Cookpad’s user structure can indeed promote strategic cooperation between the two parties.

The vast majority of CookPad users are housewives who are proficient in using the Internet and cannot afford a nanny. This shows that these users are budget-conscious in their lives and their income is not too high.

This allows for targeted marketing.

For example, Jingtao e-commerce!

Also in the Japanese market for more than a year, Ziweixing has achieved great success and can be called a giant in the Japanese Internet industry.

But Jingtao is much worse. It has been losing money for the 15th consecutive month.

It’s not easy to do e-commerce in Japan.

Rakuten's influence is too great.

Cookpad is a very good opportunity. These 90% of housewife users are potential Jingtao consumer groups who are very likely to convert.

Tang Binchen said: "The technical difficulty of Recipe Network is very low, but Japanese users are very accustomed to it. Even if we launch a new and better recipe network, it will be difficult to attract those users."

Zhou Buqi looked at him deeply and said, "The era of mobile Internet has arrived!"

Tang Binchen smiled and said: "I know, but as far as I know, Cookpad started to make profits many years ago, and the economic crisis also made profits..."

"What is the profit model?" Zhou Buqi interrupted him.

Tang Binchen said: "Advertising + membership model. There will be some advertisements on the website, which is the main source of income. Secondly, ordinary members can enjoy services for free, and premium members pay $3 per month. Premium members can have search functions, that is, Search for recipes autonomously.”

"Well, you continue."

"They are not short of money. Last year's profit reached US$2 million. The reason why they want to go public this time is because they have also felt the wave of mobile Internet. They want to raise a sum of money and then lead Cookpad to transform into a mobile phone. This is We need to expand the team and recruit more technical personnel.”

"Hmph!"

Zhou Buqi sneered twice.

Tang Binchen raised his eyebrows, "Is there anything wrong?"

Zhou Buqi said: "Do you think any Internet company can keep up with the trend of the times? The Internet and traditional industries are two different ideas, but Japanese entrepreneurs all use the thinking of traditional enterprises to build the Internet. PC Internet and mobile The Internet is also two kinds of thinking, and we need to go further. Japanese Internet companies are at least two levels behind the mobile Internet! Not to mention Japanese companies, 90% of the world's Internet companies that have done well in the PC era are now All companies will decline rapidly under the new era. Even giants like Yahoo cannot withstand the crush of the times."

This perspective is too big, and it's a bit mysterious.

Tang Binchen pondered and said: "But Japanese users have very strong habits. If Cookpad launches a mobile version, they can move from PC to mobile and unify the recipe industry."

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "You are starting from the details, just like a blind man touching an elephant. You can't see the whole elephant, and you think it's an elephant just by looking at its toes."

Tang Binchen was a little embarrassed, "Isn't it?"

Zhou Buqi glanced at him, "What beats the MP3 industry is not better MP3s, but music phones. What beats tanks is not more advanced tanks, but directional missiles. No matter how good Cookpad is, it is just a recipe website. Mobile version The screen is so big, it is impossible for users to download dozens or hundreds of apps, and there may only be a dozen commonly used apps. This requires future mobile apps to be highly functionally centralized."

"Integrate the recipe function with other information flow functions..."

Tang Binchen suddenly realized.

Zhou Buqi smiled, "It's not just information flow!"

Tang Binchen asked humbly, "Can you give me some inspiration?"

Zhou Buqi said: "The standard of 4G network has been determined, and it will not be long before it will be commercialized globally. The improvement of mobile phone performance will definitely follow Moore's Law and develop rapidly. Nowadays, the recipes are all in text version. It doesn’t matter if you can. As long as the mobile phone can shoot clear and stable video like a digital camera, and then upload it to the Internet.”

"hiss!"

Tang Binchen took a deep breath.

Video!

This is a fatal blow to the text!

Video podcasts can demonstrate how you cook and teach people how to cook at the same time; recipe podcasts can only use text to clearly describe each step of the process.

But how can words clearly describe how a dish is made?

In the past, video recording required the purchase of expensive digital cameras. Ordinary people did not have such capital, so there were not many self-media online videos.

But as the performance of smartphones improves and their functions become richer, the logic of the entire Internet has changed.

If you can't recognize this magnificent trend change, you will die!

Zhou Buqi said: "Even if Cookpad can transform and launch video recipes, they cannot make a video app that meets user habits. In the era of mobile Internet, a platform with rich content and high integration such as YouTube can sweep all industries. Don't look at it now The market value of CookPad may be more than one billion US dollars if it goes public, but it will be useless. There is no way to cash out. In a few years, the scale of this recipe company will inevitably shrink significantly or even go bankrupt."

Tang Binchen took a deep breath, "Well, that's it."

Zhou Buqi said: "Investing in cookpad will definitely lead to losses, but you are right, strategic cooperation with cookpad is necessary. Only cooperation, no investment. Just like how we introduced Ameba users to YikYak last year, you can try to bring cookpad's Housewives are attracted to Jingtao. When housewives want to buy ingredients and cooking equipment when cooking, Jingtao can be their first choice.”

Tang Binchen breathed a sigh of relief and smiled: "That's what I thought about."